Storage Heater Help

lynseydee

I moved into my two bed flat with my son just over a year ago. After realising I wasn't getting an electricity bill and not paying anything in the first few weeks it was finally sorted out and I started my direct debit. Things were going fine until I realised what I had chosen for my direct debit wasn't going to be enough and so I upped my payments to £150.00 a month to cover my outstanding bill.

I was notified last week that my payments were going to be increasing up to £195.00 a month. I came back from my holiday on Saturday and submitted a meter reading and then was told my payment was going up to £205.00 a month.

I have taken another reading tonight and in less than a week my account has increased by about £15.00. My son and I are out of the house all day from about 8.30am until 5.00pm so I don't understand why it's so much. I have called the electric company and they have suggested I speak to another department about changing my tariff as I'm currently on their standard tariff.

It doesn't help that I have storage heaters for my heating and have never really liked them as I don't completely understand them.

I have subsequently turned both dials down to low after googling and getting what I thought was the answer but I'm finding it's freezing.

Can anyone explain to me how I should have my heaters set up so that they give out enough heat to feel warm enough but without costing me the earth.

I've even contemplated moving somewhere that doesn't have night storage heaters to save myself this problem :rotfl:

Gerry1

Storage heaters on a standard full price tariff will bankrupt you, they're designed to work on cheaper overnight electricity.

You need to shop around and switch to an Economy 7 tariff, using annual kWh from actual meter readings, never estimates, and compare annual costs not monthly DD amounts. You also need to ensure that the storage heaters are automatically switched by the meter. Before going to bed you should set the output to low so that it doesn't waste heat overnight, and turn it up in the afternoon or evening if it feels too cool.

Start by setting the input control to medium. If it's too warm in the morning, turn it down a bit, and up a bit it if runs out late in the evening. And check the weather forecast each night !

Beware of any Boost switch because it may operate on full price daytime electricity, so it should only be used if you didn't charge it up sufficiently the night before and haven't got enough stored heat to use in the evening.

Check what sort of a meter you have: if it has two registers (sets of numbers) it may already be an E7 meter. Unless the storage heaters are brand new, it's hard to understand why the flat hasn't been set up for E7: it's possible that a previous tenant switched to a single rate tariff for the summer but kept the E7 meter. If not, your supplier may well change the meter free of charge but you may have to pay an electrician to wire the storage heater circuits (and immersion heater) into the off peak supply. Check with your landlord.

Make sure you send meter readings every month otherwise you may find your direct debit isn't keeping up with your usage. I trust you submitted a meter reading when you moved in, otherwise you may be paying for the previous tenants' use !

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/utilities/lower-energy-direct-debits/

Finally, make sure it really is your meter. Check the meter number appears on the bill, and if the meter is not inside your flat make sure it's not somebody else's. Switch everything off and unplug it one evening, and make sure your meter isn't incrementing and no red light is flashing. Then turn everything on, especially the oven, hob rings and the kettle and make sure the numbers are whizzing up.

Storage heaters aren't a good idea at the best of times, especially if the property is unoccupied in the daytime. Next time, try to find somewhere with gas central heating. If you shop around you'll find gas can be less than 3p/kWh, but cheap rate electricity will be around 11p/kWh and full price 16p/kWh, so you can see why any form of electric heating is best avoided.

lynseydee

Gerry1 wrote: »

Storage heaters on a standard full price tariff will bankrupt you, they're designed to work on cheaper overnight electricity.

You need to shop around and switch to an Economy 7 tariff, using annual kWh from actual meter readings, never estimates, and compare annual costs not monthly DD amounts. You also need to ensure that the storage heaters are automatically switched by the meter. Before going to bed you should set the output to low so that it doesn't waste heat overnight, and turn it up in the afternoon or evening if it feels too cool.

Start by setting the input control to medium. If it's too warm in the morning, turn it down a bit, and up a bit it if runs out late in the evening. And check the weather forecast each night !

Beware of any Boost switch because it may operate on full price daytime electricity, so it should only be used if you didn't charge it up sufficiently the night before and haven't got enough stored heat to use in the evening.

Check what sort of a meter you have: if it has two registers (sets of numbers) it may already be an E7 meter. Unless the storage heaters are brand new, it's hard to understand why the flat hasn't been set up for E7: it's possible that a previous tenant switched to a single rate tariff for the summer but kept the E7 meter. If not, your supplier may well change the meter free of charge but you may have to pay an electrician to wire the storage heater circuits (and immersion heater) into the off peak supply. Check with your landlord.

Make sure you send meter readings every month otherwise you may find your direct debit isn't keeping up with your usage. I trust you submitted a meter reading when you moved in, otherwise you may be paying for the previous tenants' use !

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/utilities/lower-energy-direct-debits/

Finally, make sure it really is your meter. Check the meter number appears on the bill, and if the meter is not inside your flat make sure it's not somebody else's. Switch everything off and unplug it one evening, and make sure your meter isn't incrementing and no red light is flashing. Then turn everything on, especially the oven, hob rings and the kettle and make sure the numbers are whizzing up.

Storage heaters aren't a good idea at the best of times, especially if the property is unoccupied in the daytime. Next time, try to find somewhere with gas central heating. If you shop around you'll find gas can be less than 3p/kWh, but cheap rate electricity will be around 11p/kWh and full price 16p/kWh, so you can see why any form of electric heating is best avoided.

Thank you for explaining how the storage heaters work. It makes sense now you've explained it to me.

My meter has three sets of readings that I have to submit so not sure if that means I'm on E7 or not. I don't know how old the storage heaters are.

Meter readings were provided when I moved in so know I'm definitely not paying for the previous tenants.

I will definitely check it's the same meter number as on my bill.

Thanks so much.

Gerry1

Sounds like you're on Economy 10 or, less likely, Economy 18 or suchlike (Economy 7 is only two rate). Basically E10 has become a very expensive tariff which is being phased out; it's only offered by a few companies and apparently trying to switch it to another company is a nightmare that's best avoided.

Your bill should tell you the exact name of your tariff.

There have been many threads about Economy 10 in recent weeks: use the search function within the energy forum and serch for terms such as Economy 10, E10, Storage Heaters, Malc, PMSG, mrshtobe, or just go back chronologically.

E7 would probably be your best bet, but the problem is that old storage heaters tended to be cheap simple boxes of bricks that were poorly insulated and often not big enough. Think of them like a hot water bottle that's too small and doesn't have a woolly cover. Just like the hot water bottle at 4am, E10 heaters were going cold by 4pm and so they had to have an afternoon top-up at the cheaper rate. You don't get that with E7, so the overnights and mornings may be too warm and the evenings too cool. But at least the E7 tariff is likely to be less astronomical and you can easily switch to almost any supplier.

If it was your own property and/or you intended to stay a long time, the answer would be to get gas if it's available, or efficient storage E7 heaters such as Dimplex Quantum. However, if it's rented and/or or short term then E7 is probably your only cost effective option, sparingly topped up when necessary with a fan heater or whatever on full price electricity.

Richie-from-the-Boro

Lyndsey, when you move in you are put on their most expensive "deemed" tariff. You are still on that expensive tariff.

You 1st need to:

- get an online account NOW
- put 8 weekly meter readings in
- know the exact name of your tariff
- know your MPAN number
- comparison sites for best tariff

I have never used boost/damper in 40+ years of NS, keep the damper flap closed and they give out good radiated heat, use the boost/flap and they warm your ceilings and seagulls with bad convected heat.

I use 60% of all kW at cheap night tariff and 40% of all kW at expensive day rate. I use an annual total of 8500kW per annum. I'm happy at 21C is with 365 days of hot angry water. These are the things you need to know and control yourself.

A brick is a brick, each brick will hold 1.48kWh of cheap heat and depending on insulation will release it over the next 17 hours. NSH tin comes in 4 varieties up to a 16 bricker 16 x 1.48kW = 23.8kWh of stored heat
- equivalent to a 1.4kW heater permanently supply of 'cheap electrical background heat' 24 not 17 hours per day.

If its out of heat by say 5 8 10pm then its because you have under-specified the tin storage needs and need more bricks or you have the damper/boost open in which case it is not good-radiative but bad-convective.

All NS heater users need an expensive to run 'on demand' electric heat occasionally.

Placement of a NSH should where aesthetically possible should be direct-line to your self, the benefit of radiated direct heat is much the same as [felt] IR heat. Keeping the living area at say 15°C is from my point of view medically unsafe and socially unreasonable, (2018-19 GOV recommends 18-19°C it was raised to 21°C in 2019)!it's your house, you decide.


Best of luck !

5.1

lynseydee

Thanks both for your replies.

I have phoned them today and have gotten onto a cheaper fixed tariff. My DD is now about the same as what it was before plus a little extra to pay off the arrears.

I don't think I'll be staying here forever, as that's not my plan, but will take on board what you have said when it comes to looking at renting/buying other properties.